This New York Football Team's Fanbase is Growing Faster Than Most

No professional league in the United States has a bigger hold on sports fans right now than the National Football League.

Think of it this way: the MLB regular season, NBA and Stanley Cup Playoffs all intersected during April and May, creating an incredible spring schedule for sports fans across the nation. Yet, when the NFL Draft, and even the NFL schedule release event, came around, the sports world collectively stopped what they were talking about, and began to break down football news once again.

The NFL is growing in popularity, and with that, comes growth of individual teams' fanbases. New York football teams have all seen jumps in popularity recently, but only one team holds the title of fastest-growing fanbase in the Empire State.

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Which New York Football Team Has Gained More Fans Than the Rest?

Research done by Betway, a global online gambling company, examined the growth of social media account followers for each NFL team over the past year. It took into account the number of followers at the beginning of the time period, where the follower count ended up after a year, and used the difference between the two figures to calculate average growth.

Here's what the research yielded:

Buffalo Bills - 4th overall - 21.51% average annual growth
New York Giants - 15th overall - 11.61% average annual growth
New York Jets - 21st overall - 8.18% average annual growth

So, based on this data, the Buffalo Bills have had the largest percentage of annual growth in their fanbase in the state of New York, and the fourth-largest of any team in the National Football League.

Considering the circumstances, namely that the Bills have been one of the best teams in the NFL in recent years, while the Giants and Jets have toiled in less-than-mediocrity, these figures shouldn't surprise many NFL fans.

Comparing NY Football Teams to the Rest of the NFL

Compared to the rest of the NFL, as previously mentioned, the Bills had the fourth-largest jump in followership over the last year. The top five teams, in terms of growth, are as follows:

Cincinnati Bengals - 94.68% average annual growth
Los Angeles Rams - 51.8% average annual growth
Tampa Bay Buccaneers - 23.49% average annual growth
Buffalo Bills - 21.51% average annual growth
Los Angeles Chargers - 20.58% average annual growth

All other teams on the list were under the 20% threshold. Meanwhile, the bottom five teams in the league in terms of growth looked like this:

32. Houston Texans - 1.13% average annual growth
31. Cleveland Browns - 1.22% average annual growth
30. Philadelphia Eagles - 3.88% average annual growth
29. Carolina Panthers - 5.11% average annual growth
28. Atlanta Falcons - 5.4% average annual growth

What's amazing about this bottom-five list, is that even the last-place team on the list still experienced a jump in followership this season. Even the Texans, who were written off from the jump last season, and were marred with controversy and off-field issues, still managed to increase their fanbase online.

The NFL is a juggernaut, and fans will likely continue to flock to teams, and their social media accounts, in the coming years.

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